


Volatile Reactions

by lionessvalenti



Category: Roswell (TV)
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-03
Updated: 2014-01-03
Packaged: 2018-01-07 05:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1116194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionessvalenti/pseuds/lionessvalenti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kyle only left that night because he thought he would get alien powers, but the longer he goes without them, he starts to wonder if they're ever coming. Until they do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Volatile Reactions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadySilver](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadySilver/gifts).



Kyle tried not to regret his decision to leave in the van that night. He knew shouldn't hold onto regret, and he made an effort to let it go, but there wasn't a day when he didn't imagine what college would have been like. Going home to see his dad at Christmas. The simple pleasure of laying on a couch all day watching one college football game after another, and only getting up to refill his soda.

He left because he knew someday he was going to get alien powers. Things were going to happen to him that he couldn't explain, but it had been more than three years since Max healed him and there weren't any powers in sight. Liz got hers only two years later and she was only getting stronger.

"Maybe Max did it differently for me," Kyle said to Isabel one night out on the balcony of their temporary housing apartment. They stayed in one place for a few months at a time, building up their cash reserve until they could move on again. "Maybe I'm not getting powers."

"Isn't that what you wanted?" Isabel asked. She sipped her iced tea. "To be normal?"

He shrugged. He didn't know. "If I'm not getting powers, maybe I should go back to Roswell. Try to pick up my life."

"Hey, now. We're not kicking you out because you're 100% human. If we were doing that, we would have gotten rid of Maria long ago."

Kyle snorted.

"Besides, it's crazy to expect your powers to show up in the time time frame as Liz's did, or even in the same way. All of us?" Isabel motioned around with her glass, as though Michael and Max were just standing there, even though they were nowhere in sight. "Our powers showed up at different times, and we don't have all of the same abilities. There is no reason to expect it be any differently with you and Liz. It'll show up when you're ready."

"I'm ready!" Kyle exclaimed, his voice echoing off the trees.

Isabel raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure about that?"

Sometimes, and this was something Kyle never told anyone else, he would imagine what Tess would say to him if she were still there, giving advice to him in a sarcastic tone. It was funny, because sometimes Isabel would tell him exactly what he thought Tess would.

So, Kyle went back to work the next day, and a few weeks later, they kept moving north. Max had read some article about a kid in Fargo with terminal cancer. They hoped to get there in time.

It was a long drive to Fargo from Denver, and Kyle, who had never been carsick before in his life, had just asked Michael to pull over so he could puke out the side of the car.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," he said, shaking and pulling his coat around him tighter, even though it was July.

Isabel pressed her hand to his forehead and frowned. "Remember what you said the other day about wanting your powers?"

" _This_ is my alien superpower? Projectile vomit?"

"Your body is changing," Isabel continued, like he hadn't spoken, "and your immune system is trying to fight it like an infection. Until everything stabilizes, this could go on for a while."

Kyle slumped in his seat. "Then just kill me now."

The drive got even longer when Kyle was sick four more times. He wasn't even sure what could be left inside of him, except for his internal organs. Instead of driving through the night, they stopped at a motel. Kyle was glad to be out of the moving car and into a still bed, even it did smell a little musty.

When he woke up, he felt better. He sat up a little bit and looked around the room. Isabel was sitting on the second bed with a book.

"Hey," he said.

She looked over and tossed the book aside. "You're awake. How are you feeling?"

"I feel fine. I -- what about the kid in Fargo?"

"Max and Michael went ahead, it's okay," Isabel replied. "It all worked out and they're back now. Now, are you okay? Do you feel different?"

"I feel the same," Kyle said. He shrugged. "Maybe I just ate something bad."

Isabel stared at him. "Kyle, you've been asleep for five days."

"What?"

"You haven't moved from that bed since Wednesday. We've been watching you in shifts to make sure you were breathing."

He blinked at her. "Five days? You were -- you were reading a book! You weren't making sure I was alive!"

Isabel looked at him for a long moment, unsure if she should blow up at him or laugh. She settled on laughing, which was good, since Kyle was only half serious anyway.

"Are you sure you feel okay because -- fire." Isabel jumped to her feet. Her eyes were wide. Surprised. Scared. It wasn't good if Isabel was scared. "The bed's on fire."

Kyle got up and stared. The bed was definitely on fire, and not just a little bit of smoke, but flames, engulfing the cheap poly-cotton sheets. "I did that?" he asked, more to himself than to Isabel, his words more of a gasp.

"And you can put it out," Isabel said. She grabbed his hand and held it out the fire. He could feel the heat against his palm. "Just concentrate, Kyle. You can put it out before the smoke alarm goes off."

"How do I do it?" he asked. He didn't know how he set the fire in the first place.

"You have to control it," she replied. "You were relaxed when you started the fire. Breathe and stay relaxed. Don't panic."

"There's a _fire_!"

Isabel tightened her grip around his wrist. "Imagine yourself putting it out. Imagine it so much that it's happening."

Kyle closed his eyes. All he could smell was smoke. He tried to imagine the bed extinguished, the charred remains of sheets and pillows. He couldn't see himself putting the fire out, but if he could see the results of putting it out, it might work.

"You did it!" Isabel released Kyle's wrist and she laughed. She grabbed him back the shoulder and he opened his eyes as they were face-to-face. "You put that fire out!"

Kyle looked away from her smiling face at the bed, charred like it had been in his imagination. "I did it," he repeated. "I set things on fire with my _hands_."

"You were the one who wanted alien powers," Isabel replied in a sing-song voice. She seemed positively delighted that Kyle was one of them now.

"I did," he said, his voice hollow. "This is the scariest thing that's ever happened to me."

"Including that time you were shot?"

He wouldn't be here now if he hadn't been shot. He was still being shot. He ran his hands through his hair and wondered if he could set his hair on fire.

"Kyle?" Isabel asked. "Are you freaking out?"

"I have alien powers," he said, and she nodded.

"Yeah, you do. But you knew that was going to happen eventually."

He looked around and his eyes settled on the remains of the bed and then up at Isabel. She was right. He knew this was coming, but it was a lot different now that the powers were here. There was no way she could understand that. He could tell her that, but there were more pressing issues. "We should get out of here before someone smells the smoke and we have to pay for this bed."

She nodded. "You're right. I'm just going to leave a tip for housekeeping. Someone is going to have to find that. They should get ten dollars."

"Do you really think ten dollars is going to cover this?" Kyle asked.

"No, but -- shouldn't you be thinking about your newly acquired alien powers? Try not to set fire to things. You're not allowed to pump gas until you get this under control." Isabel paused. "Fire is cooler that finger-lightning."

"Yeah?"

"Definitely." Isabel pulled a ten dollar bill out of her pocket and left it on the night stand. She banged on the wall. "Michael! Maria! We have to go! Kyle is setting fire to things with his mind!"

"What?" Maria screeched back. "Fire?"

"That's why we have to go!" Isabel called. "Unless you want to buy a new bed!"

"We gotta go," Kyle heard Michael say, though not quite so loud. The walls were really thin.

"Can I brush my teeth first?" Kyle asked.

"No!" Michael barked.

"Damn," Kyle muttered while Isabel shoved clothes and her book in a bag.

As they ran out to the van as fast as possible, Kyle tried to imagine what college would be like. Christmases at home and football Sundays. He'd be setting fire to his dorm room and not thinking about kids with cancer. He didn't know what was coming next, or how this powers thing would work out. It was what he wanted, or at least he thought he wanted, but at the same time it scared him. At least he was with the only people in the world who knew how to help him.

He wouldn't trade this life for anything.


End file.
